Earlier this year, the iQOO 15 Ultra launched in China as the brand's first-ever "Ultra" smartphone. The Ultra flagship sat above the regular iQOO 15 with flagship hardware, a built-in cooling fan and a significantly higher price tag. However, a new leak now suggests its successor, the iQOO 16 Ultra, has been discontinued amid rising memory costs.
iQOO 16 Ultra Reportedly Discontinued
Reliable tipster Digital Chat Station (DCS) has shared on Weibo that iQOO is reportedly planning to pause its Ultra lineup. While the post doesn't explicitly mention the iQOO 16 Ultra, the tipster usually uses the "👖" emoji to hint at iQOO phones. That, followed by the mention of "Ultra" in the post, is solid evidence that the tipster is referring to the successor to the iQOO 15 Ultra.
It is important to note that the translated text reads "the Ultra sub-series will most likely also pause for one generation." This could imply that iQOO is planning to pause the Ultra lineup rather than completely discarding it. Hence, even though the iQOO 16 Ultra is not on the cards for 2027, it might launch in 2028.
DCS further substantiates this by responding to a comment which seems to speculate that the decision has been taken due to the ongoing RAM crisis. However, the leaker claims that iQOO had internally decided long back that its "Ultra" series would not follow an iterative launch cycle. Instead, the brand wants Ultra-branded phones to bring along technological breakthroughs worth talking about.
That said, it doesn't take away the fact that the RAM crisis could be one of the primary driving factors for this decision. While iQOO has not officially released a statement yet, we have already seen the brutal nature of the current RAM fiasco.
To recall, the iQOO 15 Ultra launched in China for 5,699 Chinese yuan (approximately Rs 1,00,000). It is already a steep price and directly competes with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, Oppo Find X9 Pro, Vivo X300 Pro and more.
Hence, if this does turn out to be true, we could see only two phones launch under the iQOO 16 series this year - the standard iQOO 16 along with the more affordable iQOO 16R (for India) and iQOO 16T (for China).
However, we urge our readers to take the latest development with a pinch of salt and wait for official confirmation.
